A BOASTING teenager who bragged about turning £2,000 into £21 million in just 18 months has been sentenced to youth detention over a £100,000 fraud.

Sam Cook, now 18, even claimed he made an eye watering £6 million in one day by trading on the stock market.

But it was all a lie and he was sentenced last Friday by Plymouth Crown Court after he admitted fleecing friends of his parents.

The teenager from Lewdown also admitted driving his 220mph red Ferrari F430 Scuderia without L-plates while holding a provisional licence — but even the Ferrari was a fake.

Cook’s downfall came after he boasted in a Plymouth newspaper article that he had turned £2,000, given to him by his dad Peter, 49, in January, into £100,000 by May.

He bragged that by the end of the year he was living in an apartment in a luxury waterside development in Plymouth, had amassed £17.5 million from his investments and was paying himself £12,000 a month.

Cook told the paper he splashed out £170,000 on the Ferrari, another £120,000 on a watch — but still shopped in Lidl.

In the article he said: ‘I want to have £2 billion by the time I am 50.’

But it was all a con and Cook’s lavish lifestyle was being funded by the friends and associates of his parents who had trusted him.

Some invested life savings and said they could have spent the cash on paying off their mortgages or buying a newer car.

One victim – who cannot be named for legal reasons – invested £50,000 in the scam.

Recorder Richard Powell said: ‘It is plain to me that this company you set up was fraudulent from the start.

‘What you were offering was something that was simply fraudulent. You used the money to fund a lavish lifestyle.

‘You had an expensive flat, an expensive car, albeit not a Ferrari.’

He said Cook spent the cash on lavish overseas holidays, saying: ‘You presented and represented yourself as a man of wealth.’

Sentencing him to a total of 26 months in a youth detention centre, the judge said Cook had ripped off the victims in a ‘frankly mean way’.

He said Cook even told the investors that their money was doing well and ‘everything was fine when it was not, and you knew it was not’.

Prosecutor Kelly Scrivener said the fraud was exposed by a detective after Cook bragged about his success to his local Plymouth newspaper.

Det Con Daniel Atkinson looked into some of his claims and checked out his Ferrari on the police national computer — and found that it was a £20,000 replica, based on a Ford Cougar.

One of his victims was Andrew Reeve who invested £5,000 on behalf of a number of investors – money that has since been repaid.

Miss Scrivener said: ‘It was not a legitimate business.

‘He pocketed the money and used it to lead a lavish lifestyle. He had wasted their money on himself and there is nothing left.’

Michael Green, defending, said Mr Reeve had been repaid the £5,000 investment. He said £6,640 was found by police in a safe at Cook’s flat, his £18,000 fake Ferrari was crashed by his dad but the insurance money could be used in compensation and he had sold antiques and computers at auction to raise another £3,000.

He said: ‘It is still a modest sum but it does display a strong willingness to repay these victims. What happened was utterly inappropriate.

‘It was a bogus company, it was a bogus investment.

‘It was only a matter of time when it came to light and it did come to light. He was 17 years old during the bulk of the period of the offences.’

He said Cook made up the newspaper story after problems at school and because he wanted to ‘make his parents proud of him’.

But he said he would be ‘disgusted’ if he had been the victim of such a fraud.

Mr Green said the teenager ended up with cash in his bank and he was ‘tempted to use it and he did use it’.

‘He was a 17 year old who suddenly found himself with quick money and he fell to temptation and spent it.’

Cook admitted six counts of fraud between June 2014 and January 2015 and one driving offence.